Episode 1: The Saturday Shift

Shift • Episode One • The Saturday Shift

“TOO DANGEROUS”

Former Inmate reflecting on living within the inmate population. (face blurred)
“You walk out on the range and you don’t know if some lunatic is all pilled-up  that’s decided he’s going to die that day man. You’re living in a reality with 600 other guys that are damaged like you. That’s the reality. Your best day can end in your death. You’re surrounded by guys that are there for a reason. Society don’t want you. You’re too dangerous”.

THE SATURDAY SHIFT

At the edge of Renous, New Brunswick, Atlantic Institution houses up to 331 of the most dangerous men in Canada — many of them serving long sentences for violent crimes.

Today, we meet up with Correctional Manager JP Bernard, who is halfway through his 12-hour shift.

He spent the morning overseeing the Structured Intervention Unit, and now heads over to supervise operations in a living unit – Unit 5.

Hi, I’m JP and I’m a Correctional Manager here at Atlantic Institution.

What I do when I start my shift is I'll read the briefing of what happened within the last 24 hours. Try to spend particular attention to my unit to see if there were any incidents that happened, any moves, anything involving staff or if it was seizures or contraband found or an inmate damaging a cell or attempting to assault another inmate. I’ll make my way down to the office with the other CX’s, have some conversation, talk to them about if they have any concerns, if they have any information they have to share or they want to share with me.

Basically, I show myself present on the range to just keep up with what's going on with the inmates. And if somebody wants to have a chat, I try to show myself available and respectful to them with the interactions that I have.

Atlantic Institution is a maximum security prison.

Institutions can have several units. Within each unit, there are various ranges.

Each range has several inmate cells as well as a common area where they can eat, play games, and spend time together.

All the ranges on the unit are managed by the Secure Control Post or “Bubble”, that has a full 360-degree view of all the ranges on the unit. From here, staff control everything – from opening and locking doors, to inmate movements, and calling in correctional officers when an incident happens.    

Ah, my first day of work. Wow. Um, it's been a while, but I think the best word to describe it was overwhelming. I applied for corrections. I thought to myself – well, this is something that is challenging, this is something that is interesting and I felt my interest in it growing. And since December of 2005, I have been employed as a Correctional Officer at Atlantic Institution. Looking back at myself, being strongly overwhelmed in my first days here. Now I look back at it and I feel it was the really right choice for my career.

After close to 20 years at the institution, JP has been here long enough to know the patterns. Who’s on shift. Which unit is quiet. Which isn’t. He’s also been able to develop a rapport with many of the inmates – something that comes in handy to de-escalate situations before they become serious.

He knows that Unit 5 demands focus—and that on a Saturday night, he and his team need to be on high alert for suspicious activity.

It is hard to make an assumption that, Oh, today's not going to be a good day or today something's going to happen. We look at briefing notes on a day-to- day basis. So, if something happened throughout the night, let's say an inmate was being non-compliant with staff, being in their cell, could be just blocking a cell window or refusing to answer staff during a range walk. So usually we look at those, but in this area, in this field of work, one day or one second you could have two guys just talking to each other, like nothing's going on. And in the next instant, you could have one of the, one of the inmates just unprovokedly attack the other one for no apparent reason. So sometimes you can get a general feeling, but more time than not, it's something that will be completely unexpected and catch people by surprise.

“I MET EVIL”

Inmate reflecting the inmate population.
“I can see what people are like, I met evil. People think evil doesn’t exist – let’s go for a walk inside Dorchester or Springhill or Renous or Beaver Creek in Ontario – and I tell you – you can see the dead in people’s eyes”

I noticed a change in offender behavior and in the past few years and there is a difference from when I started to now. Back then, the general feeling was when two inmates had a beef with each other, they would square up or have a fight in the gym or in the yard or on the unit and it would be done with it. But in recent time, I think the wolf pack mentality took over, meaning like it was never one on one anymore. It was two, three, four, five on one. And the brutality of these assaults has very much increased due to the fact of the numbers and the weapons and just inmates having a hard time being able to coexist, which resulted in separation of units to try to alleviate some tensions and trying to have people that can get along together to be together. But it's just an ongoing struggle as well. And the behavior hasn't been slowing down since.

COUNTS & PATROLS

It’s 4:30pm, and kitchen staff come around with meals. An inmate is trusted with collecting the meals from the staff member and distributing them to all the inmates on the range. For security reasons, inmates usually eat alone in their cells. But after an inmate count they’re allowed time out of their cells to socialize with others.

JP now shifts his focus to the inmate count. These counts are a critical part of a correctional officer’s shift. Not only do they ensure every inmate is accounted for – it’s also an opportunity to check on their wellbeing.

During the round, an inmate stops JP to talk to him.

JP :  “I'll verify the status of your video visits and I'll get clarification.

Inmate : I have to see my son – a newborn – I have to see my son”.

JP : I know, I remember you mentioning it to me. Yes. So let me touch base with VNC about the application and if and when I get an answer, I'll make sure you're made aware of it.

Inmate : What's your name and what's the last name again?

JP : I'm JP, Bernard.”

I show myself present to the inmates. I do numerous walks on the ranges. I listen to the inmates. I listen to their concerns. I try to resolve issues that they might have and I always try, I always stay truthful to them when they ask me a question. If I don't know the answer, I'll say, I say, I don't know, but I'll try to find an answer. And I try to develop positive rapport dealing with the inmates and talking to them. I find that being truthful, being respectful with them, makes the job a lot easier.

Every inmate is accounted for. With only 2.5 hours before the next count, inmates value every minute of free time. As 5:30 hits, inmates demand to be released, and even a minute delay causes heightened tensions in inmates towards staff.

Normally, only six inmates can be out at a time. But on Saturdays, routine is different, and all inmates – up to 24 at a time on each range, are free to socialize, make snacks, work out, and more.

With so many inmates out at once, Correctional Officers need to be on high alert when walking the range.

So, on the range, when the inmates see me on the range, they can usually use the word, Oh, here comes the blue shirt, or they'll say on the block or four bars around or keepers on the block. So that's their way of passing the message that the correctional manager is on the range.

IT’S OK NOT TO BE OK.

After 16 full years here, I took a few months at home to charge the battery.

Basically, it was just an accumulation of all kinds of different stressors, whether it's seeing an inmate, hanging very, very early in my career to multiple inmates with self-injurious behavior, having to use physical handling to break up a fight between two inmates only to realize that the inmate that I tried to take down under control actually had a weapon on him. And the weapon fell like a few inches from my face. And to this day, I still remember clearly hearing the sound it made,

I don't know if it was self denied or me being oblivious to it, but when that incident happened, my behavior changed. I wasn't sleeping good at all. I was really irritable with my wife and my kids and I was being completely oblivious to it. I remember the day that I realized how bad it was and how blind I was to it was, a talk that I had with my dad going home after a shift and basically I vented for a good 10, 15 minutes. And he never said a word during the whole time. And I remember when I stopped talking, he asked me if I was done and I said, well, what do you mean? So it was just a long pause. And, basically he went straight to the point. He told me, “you're not doing well right now between the ears. You need to look after yourself.”  After that I kind of realized that, you know what, maybe it is time that I look after myself and realized that it's okay not to be okay sometimes. And there's no shame of seeking out and reaching out for help.

Looking back at how it was viewed back in the early 2000’s when I started, having some mental health issue and being, being depressed, being feeling burnt out, I think there was a stigma associated to it that, Oh, you're a correctional officer. You're supposed to be tough. Your skin is tough. Like stuff like that shouldn't be bothering you at all. Like just, just be a man, like just, just deal with it. And, looking back lately as the years went by, the huge progress that was made, and I think the acceptance of how it is when people deal with mental health stuff, I think it was a huge progress made. And I hope, I hope that everybody that feels like they need the help, just to reach out, reach out and get the help if you need it. Cause you're doing yourself a favor. You're doing your loved ones a favor and you're doing most importantly for yourself. Look out for yourself. Because you are important.

Returning to work afterwards, my views on how to prepare myself mentally or how to act and how to react changed, uh, dramatically. I’m not saying this to say that I'm nonchalant now, but I don't feel, I don't feel the same amount of stress. I don't feel like a huge stressor about coming into work. I just come into work. I go about my business. If something happens, I deal with it accordingly. And I just come to realize that regardless how stressed out I am, or how not I am, if there's something that's going to happen, I mean, it's going to happen and nothing can change.

(JP talks with colleagues)

I actually enjoy coming to work because I know I will be working with people I know very well, people I get along with, people I have respect for and vice-versa. In this field it is a bit unique with the type of work that we do. Working in an environment that is mostly negative, you need to find the positive in other areas. And for me, one big thing, everybody has co-workers in a job, but in this field, I strongly believe that the bond is more than just being a co-worker. On your day-to-day operation of your duties, you can potentially be putting your life in the hands of a fellow co-worker. And doing that, I think it extends the bond. It’s very positive and very rewarding to have that feeling towards the people you work with.

“CHANCES”
Former Inmate reflecting on change.
“I’ll leave you with the most obvious conflict about somebody’s belief that you only deserve maybe 1 or 2 chances. I would ask anybody with that belief to look inside them, and ask how many chances they’ve had. Ask yourself that, and be honest about it. And you’ll find most people, anyway at least for me – I’m a human being. Every few days, I need another chance. Everybody deserves a chance. Some people are too dangerous to live among society. I get that. But there’s many examples of successful incarceration where you have real meaningful change.”

Shift would like to thank:
Correctional Manager, Jean-Pierre Bernard
Atlantic Institution Warden, Monik Cormier
All of the staff at our Atlantic Institution 
All of the Atlantic Regional Headquarters staff

And special thanks to all of the Correctional Officers in all of our institutions on the front lines of public safety in Canada for their service, hard work and dedication to keeping Canadians safe every day.